Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

Photoplay Magazine 31 rector, with me — James Morrison. Leo Delaney, Wally \'an. S. Rankin Drew, Ned Finley, James Lackaye and many others. Rankin Drew, a hero now bivouacked on the eteni.il camping-ground of France, would have left a bright and enduring name in motion pictures had he been soured to any maturity of accomplishment. As it was. 'The Girl Phillipa" is a better thing than most of the celebrated ones hax-e ever done. I must not for|:et the talented women contemporaneous with the group above, including Julia Swayne Gonlon, Eulalie Jensen, Rose Tapley, Mar\' Charleson — now Mrs. Henn, Walthall — Louise Beaudet, Naomi Childers, Rosemar\ Theby and Zena Keefe. Rose Coghlan did a bit of Shakespearean drama. Cissy Fitzgerald danced and winked through the "Winsome Widow" series. Josie Sadler sidestepped in from vaudeville, and Anna Laughlin breezed out of musical comedy. It was also my pleasure anel privilege to direct the first actor of the American stage, E. H. Sothem, who appeared in "An Enemy to the King." and other modem pla_\s. I wonder if you have any idea when the automobile, which is now as great and constant an aid to the picture producer as the telephone is to his brother, the stage director— I wonder if you have any idea when this constantly tired but always ready mechanical friend made its motion picture debut? It was in 1005 that we used automobiles for the first time as a means of escape and pursuit. The piece was '"Escaped from Sing-Sing." a "chase" melodrama. Paul Panzer played the chief convict, and Charles Kent the warden. The two motors, with a third trailing them with camera and director, careened through Bron.x Park one bright summer morning, chased and chasers yelling wildly, firing broadsides of blank cartridges at each other. As the striped felons and blue-uniformed guards flashed past a couple of park policemen standing by their horses we realized that we were in for a more or less serious interruption. In a moment they were on their horses and after us. They were quickly joined by a few bicycle cops, but at that we left them all behind and would have made a clean get-away had not a single motor-cycle joined the hue and cr>-. Well . . . it was a busy day in Bronx Park, and we made our explanations not on the turf, but at the station-house, to an .imazed Ueutenant. fcy Commodore Blackton. He !■ »een here wrrin^ing the bcart lA, 'whom you may poaaibly identify by one o£ hia (injera. Thr h4ippy Ijmily Jjr<»up at iUr tttp irirltidrii i iiir»*iirr l.jwrriicr 3* Jiilirt and I'jiil I',iii2«*r .m Krirtico. .\li«a l,.iwrrtic« at tliia time n-^m Julirt's <*wi» ajl* •ixti-rii yrara filJ. In (lir crriirr. the late John Ktinny, Lillian Walker and Wally \ an. Brlow, tiara Kimball ^ oun)t, in "Lovr'a Sunaet." But see what happens in 191Q: banks arc robbed in broad daylight, officers are slugged before applauding crowds, nn 1 men arc actually shot while the audience of thoro' movieated Americans just jumps about pleasantly, laur at very honest yells for help, and only trying to get into the picture! Such is the contempt familiarity breeds. We had one piece de resistance in that year — 1005. It represented, as we breathlessly announced it. THE ACTl'AL DESTRICTION BY FIRE OF A FIVE-THOL'SAND DOLLAR ALTOMOBILEl! Really, it was just a s<xon<lhand electric, but such ariistic extravagance was unheard of, and became the talk of the trade. A few years later, for a single short scene in "The Juggernaut," I bought a pas^enecr locomotive anri an entire